Dr Slava Vaisman

Radislav Vaisman is a Lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Queensland. He received the Ph.D. degree in Information System Engineering from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. His research interests are rare–event probability estimation, theoretical computer science, and randomized algorithms. He is the co-author of two books, Fast Sequential Monte Carlo Methods for Counting and Optimization and Ternary Networks: Reliability and Monte Carlo. His personal website can be found under http://www.smp.uq.edu.au/node/106/2407 and http://www.smp.uq.edu.au/people/RadislavVaisman. His email address is r.vaisman@uq.edu.au and slvaisman@gmail.com.

Radislav Vaisman's research interests lie at the intersection of applied probability and computer science where he has made key contributions to the theory and the practical usage of Sequential Monte Carlo methods. Specifically, his work led to the publication of a book by John Wiley & Sons: Fast Sequential Monte Carlo Methods for Counting and Optimization, which covers the state-of-the-art of modern simulation techniques for counting and optimization. In addition, his contribution to the field of Reliability resulted in the book: Ternary Networks: Reliability and Monte Carlo, by Springer. Dr. Vaisman has published in top ranking journals such as Statistics and Computing, INFORMS, Journal on Computing, Structural Safety, Networks, and IEEE Transactions on Reliability.

Radislav Vaisman's research in the field of Sequential Monte Carlo led to the development of the Stochastic Enumeration method for estimating the size of backtrack trees. The proposed method tackles this very general but difficult problem in computational sciences. Dr. Vaisman also developed a rigorous analysis of the Stochastic Enumeration procedure and showed that it results in significant variance reduction as compared to available alternatives. In addition, he applied the multilevel splitting ideas to many practical applications, such as optimization, counting, and network studies. Dr. Vaisman has also produced insightful work in the field of systems reliability, both in theory and practice. In particular, he has developed Sequential Monte Carlo methods for estimating failure probability in highly reliable structures and new sampling plans for estimating network reliability based on a network's structural invariants. This contribution has been recognized by top scientific journals in this field, namely Structural Safety and IEEE Transactions on Reliability.